Birthed from failure
by AngryOwl
Summary: They say the hardest part about getting up is the fall. He had fallen ... hard. Can a strange elf girl with magical abilities help him get back up?
1. Chapter 1

A river cut through directly through the center of the forest. Carved by hundreds of years of erosion, the river's path was curved and winding. Its flow was slow and gentle as it carried its liquid content.

Due to the size of the river, an uncountable amount of object floated through its body. Massive chunks of lumber, numerous animals and even pieces of forgotten trash could be found bobbing up and down on its surface. All these things were natural to the river's ecosystem or would eventually found itself plucked out. What wasn't natural was the blond-haired human laid on his back amongst the flow of the river.

" _I failed_." That was the boy's thought as he floated down the river. His eyes remained closed as the water carried him, partly because he couldn't find the will to open them and partly because of the splashing water around him. His normally spiky hair had been turned into long, golden locks by the water around him. His orange uniform that he had been known for so well was more red than orange at this point. A massive hole, its size measuring to that of almost two fists, had been burned through his top, revealing newly formed yet scarred flesh. To finish off the boy's unique appearance, three whisker marks adorned both of his cheeks.

" _I failed_." Once more, the thought echoed through his mind. One would think that at this point in the boy's life, he would be used to failure. He had failed in the academy dozens of time. He had failed to earn the affection or respect of either of his teammates. And, most recently, he had failed to retrieve his teammate.

That fact hurt. It hurt more than the hole that had been pierced through his body only hours prior. The fox had made sure of that. Despite their tumultuous relationship, the boy's tenant had stitched up any damage incurred during his fight rather quickly.

The fight. The thought of the fight made his face scrunch up in a phantom pain. It had been hard fought but, once again, Sasuke managed to best him. The Uchiha had left him with a hole in his chest at the very base of the waterfall at the Valley of the end. He could've died. He should've died. As the force of the waterfall pushed him beneath the surface of the water, he should've drowned. When the force of the water pushed him miles downstream, he still should've drowned. But, he didn't. He couldn't help but question why?

" **Because of me, brat**." A deep voice rumbled through his mind. His savior was speaking to him yet he didn't want to reply. He couldn't find it within him to do so. He was gracious but the pain of the situation kept him muted. For once in their relationship, the fox seemed to understand and comply with his thoughts and went quiet.

The boy, along with his unseen tenant, continued their silent journey down the river. A part of him spurred him to rise from the river and return to the village. He knew that they were probably searching for him at this point. The fox stuck in his gut made sure of that. Yet, even with this knowledge, he couldn't find the energy to rise up. He couldn't find the energy to swim to shore and return to the valley of the end. His will of fire had been depleted, leaving him numb and motionless.

So, he floated. He did not know for how long he floated. He only knew that it must've been for a while. His only indication of the time was the position of the sun in the sky. Even then, he did not care enough to keep a solid track of the massive orb of heat. Every once in awhile, his mind would focus on to it. He would take a brief note of its changed position before spacing out once again. This was the pattern that he existed in for an unknown amount of time. Simply staring and floating.

"Are you alive?" The soft sound of a voice calling out to him managed to snap the boy out of his trance. He turned his head to the right where he heard the voice and nearly jumped out of the water at the sight that greeted him.

"Are you okay?" She questioned once again. The teen had to use a good portion of his remaining willpower to stop his eyes from sinking down to her breast. Her clothing didn't offer much support to the twins as they pressed heavily against her top. Of course, Naruto never took notice of this as he kept his eyes firmly locked on the girl's face. Nope, his eyes never drifted.

"Are you mute or something?" The girl's final question managed to spur the blond into speaking.

"No," Naruto said while breaking eye contact with her. His attention returned to the sky while the water continued to carry him downstream.

"I'm just tired." His last statement brought forth a curious glance from the unknown female. She remained silent for a few moments, taking the time to observe his face. The twin sets of whisker marks on his cheeks caught her attention for several seconds before her eyes trailed down his body.

"You're hurt." Her face was masked with worry while her eyes stayed locked onto the fist-sized hole that had been burnt through the boy's jacket. She could see patches of blood that had managed to paint the edges of the burn hole. From her elevated position, she also managed to get a good luck of the new soft and pink flesh that sat in the center of the boy's chest.

"Yeah, some jerk stuck his fist through my chest." The strange-looking girl was stuck between looking disgusted and shocked at his words. The concern on her face was clear as she leaned her face down toward Naruto.

"You need help."

"No I don't. I'm already healed." Naruto decided the best way to demonstrate this was by giving his chest a heavy thump with his fist. When a wave of pain spread through his chest on contacted, followed by a large amount of stinging, the blond quickly discovered that that wasn't the best idea. The loud hiss that left his mouth made pain clear to the girl.

"I don't think you're really healed." Naruto turned his head to face the girl once more. The deadpan look on his face clearly displayed his thoughts to her.

"Let me heal you." The girl reached her hand down toward Naruto's chest but was halted in her action when pushed away her hand.

"I don't need healing." The blond raised his voice, hoping that it would be enough to scare away the strange girl. He found his hopes dashed away when the girl reached down with her hands once again. He slapped them away once again but found her hands immediately making their descent once more. The duo entered into a vicious cycle with the girl continuously reaching down toward him while the boy continuously pushed and slapped her hands away.

"Enough!" Naruto shouted while standing up in the chest-height water. Unfortunately for the blond, he didn't take into account the tenderness of his flesh and muscle. The fox hadn't completely made the pain ignorable. The sudden movement agitated his still sore body, making him yell loudly in pain before nearly flopping back into the water. He would've found himself nearly drowning if it wasn't for the girl reaching down and catching him before his head dipped beneath the surface of the water. With his body aching and screaming in protest to any movements, Naruto was basically defenseless as the girl heaved him out of the water with a surprising amount of strength. When the girl began to drag him toward the forest line, the boy decided to give up any hope of fighting her grasp. Instead, he simply enjoyed the fact that he was no longer pruning in the water and let her drag him.

Their journey didn't last for long before Naruto found himself softly deposited on the ground. He vaguely noted that it didn't feel like he was laying on dirt and grass just before his vision was filled with the face of the strange girl.

"If I try to heal you, you won't slap my hands away, right?" The girl received nothing but silence in response to her question, causing her to huff out in agitation. She decided that for the sake of any further agitation, she would take the silence as a yes and got down to work.

Naruto watched cautiously as the girl lowered her hands down to his chest. As she unzipped the remnants of his jacket, he inwardly wondered why he was allowing this interaction to take place. After what had just happened to him, he shouldn't trust anyone, especially a stranger he met in the middle of the forest. But, another part of him rationalized just what the big deal was? He had just survived getting stabbed through the heart by a lightning-covered fist. Whatever harm the girl could do couldn't possibly top that. And, even if it did, the big ol' fox in his stomach would patch him up.

It was with these thoughts that the blond watched the girl's hands get enveloped in a nearly blinding white light. He was forced to squint his eyes in order to see as she began to press her hands against his chest.

As soon as her hands made contact, a warm feeling began to spread through his chest. The blond found himself holding back a moan at the sudden pleasantness. He managed to contain himself, finding strength in the fact that moaning suddenly would most likely scare off the girl.

If she noticed his strange expressions, she said nothing as she continued to hold her hands over his chest. Her face was a mask of concentration as she worked. The longer she worked, the more intense the feeling grew within the blond and before long, Naruto found himself squirming beneath her ministrations.

Just as the sensation reached a point where the blond thought he couldn't contain himself, the girl retracted her hands. With her arms no longer obstructing him, Naruto's upper half shot up. The blonde girl jumped back with a loud yelp at the sudden motion. The intense stare and slight blush on the boy's cheeks perturbed her … a lot.

"What did you just do?" Naruto breathed out heavily as the phantom touch of the pleasant1 feeling radiated within his core. In all of his years of living, he had never experienced anything that was so … _pleasant_. Inwardly, he was thanking the gods above for allowing him to keep some control of his lower body during the whole process. As flustered as he was now, he wouldn't want to see how he would be acting if a certain part of his body had reacted.

"Ah," The girl tilted her head to the side at the question. A soft hum left her lips as she stared at him for several seconds before raising her hands to her face.

"I healed you." She said the statement as if it was the simplest conclusion ever. She gave a small wave of her hand, sending a shower of white sparkles falling from her skin The sight of the sparkles enraptured the boy. He watched as they floated through the air down toward the ground. When they reached earth, the soil seemed to drink in their presence, causing them to fade almost immediately.

"I've never seen any healing jutsu like that." Naruto muttered before raising his head to look at the elvish girl. The face that met him was one of confusion. It seemed that his statement had been heard but not entirely understood.

"Whats a jutsu?" The girl questioned once more, again with the same tilt in the head she did before. Almost unconsciously, Naruto found himself nearly copying her actions. He managed to snap himself from doing so but found the action required a lot of effort.

"Its … nothing. Just talking to myself." Naruto decided against speaking any further. The excited and pleasant feeling he had been feeling previously had died away, leaving him feeling as hollow and sorrowful as he did before. Even the lack of soreness in his body hadn't managed to dissuade him from his sour mood. His entire body responded to the mood; his eyes dropped to almost closed, his shoulders nearly sagged off his body and his head flopped downward.

The woman watched this transition happen with a frown on her face. It was at this moment that she made the decision that she was going to try her very best to help cheer him up.

"Well, stranger," The girl's voice managed to make Naruto raise his head to look at her. "What's your name?"

The rarely used but very much alive logical side of the boy's brain begged for him to give the girl a false name or not answer her at all. After all, he was recently injured, assumingly a far distance from Konoha and had absolutely no idea where he was. The fact that the one who was asking him this question was a girl who's name he didn't know and had used some ability he had never seen or heard about. Everything he had learned as a ninja, either from the academy or his sensei, screamed at him for him to just stay silent.

" _They also told me to trust my teammates_." Naruto had to stop himself from rubbing at his chest. A sigh left his lips at the melodramatic thought. This wasn't like him. That was the type of thought he expected from his former teammate. Just because the Uchiha had left the team didn't mean that he needed to fill in for him.

"My name is Naruto." The blond finally mumbled out after an extended silence. The girl looked a little surprised by the name before repeating it out loud. Naruto had to hold back a chuckle as she stumbled over its pronunciation. His name sounded like a cinder block when it left her mouth. It was pretty clear to him that his name was definitely not common from wherever she was from.

He must've not done a really good job in hiding his amusement because the girl quickly began to pout at him. Her cheeks puffed outward in protest as she exhaled loudly through her nose. The look only served to make the boy chuckle more, causing the girl to release the pout in loud huff of air.

"If I had known you would be so rude, I wouldn't have healed you." The girl grumbled out. For a small moment, the blond believed her anger to be genuine. But, when her angry facade melted away into a smile that radiated pure happiness, Naruto knew he couldn't have been any more wrong.

"Well, Naruto, my name is Tiffania." The smile that the girl sent him managed to pierce him deeper than even Sasuke had managed to do. He found himself subconsciously returning it with a smile of his own. Despite his utter being not wanting to smile anytime soon, the blond couldn't fight the urge to smile. There was just something about the girl's gesture that had him smirking like an idiot.

"Nice to meet you," Naruto replied before attempting to calm his facial features. He was supposed to be upset right now, not smirking like an idiot.

"How'd you get that wound?" And just like that, the girl's question sent the blond back to his frowning state. She took notice of the change and started to apologize. Her apologies lasted for several seconds before Naruto halted her by holding you up his hand.

"Don't say sorry. It wasn't your fault." The blond lowered his hand to rub at the hole in his clothing. Tiffania frowned as she watched him dip a finger past the frayed and burned fabric of his clothes to touch his skin. The slight wince at the touch sent a wave of pity through the girl as she raised her eyes to look at the blond's face.

"A jackass who I thought was my friend decided that he no longer wanted to be friends." Out came the blond's vague response as he rubbed at his wound. A part of him still wasn't ready to fully retell the events of Sasuke's betrayal. The feeling of the Uchiha's arm through his chest still haunted his mind, leaving him hesitant to talk.

"I don't have many friends but even I know that a friend wouldn't do something like this to their friend and just leave them there." Naruto raised his head at the tone of the girl's voice and was surprised to see a look of anger on her face. He hadn't expected to receive such a reaction from her, considering they had only met minutes ago.

"Friends are supposed to take care of each other even when they're made at each other. They're not supposed to hurt each other and when they do, they're supposed to apologize." Tiffania continued her tangent in the same angry tone that had originally caught Naruto's attention. The boy watched her speak, his surprise with her growing with each word she uttered. The passion in her words caught him off guard in the most pleasant way possible. It was rare that strangers ever showed him such empathy.

"I say good riddance. You don't need people like that in your life." Tiffania finished her talk with a huff of air before returning her attention back onto Naruto. When she saw the blond staring at her with slack jawed and wide eyed expression, her mind instantly went to the worse. The confidence that had filled her only moments before left her like air out of a balloon as she started to apologize once again.

"I'm so so so sorry. I didn't mean to insult your friend. I did-

"You don't have to apologize." Naruto interrupted the girl again. The fear that had radiated off of her started to fade when she spotted the small smile on his face.

"You're right. He was an asshole before this and I bet he's even more of an asshole now. I'm not too upset he decided to leave." The smile on Naruto's face lasted for a several more seconds before it faded into a frown. "Though … I promised a friend I would bring him back."

"Well, if they're a real friend they will understand that it wasn't your fault. You can't force someone to do something." The confidence came surging back into the girl as the words left her mouth. Naruto could only stare at her determined form as she kept her eyes locked onto his. The shy, demure girl he thought he was interacting was gone once again, leaving him brimming with emotion that he rarely ever felt.

"You're nice." Naruto's words managed to drag the girl's brewing confidence out of her like the receding tide. It was soon replaced by shock as Tiffania searched the boy's face for the meaning of his words.

"Wha?"

"You're really nice," Naruto repeated his words, this time much louder. Tiffania found herself startled by the sudden increase of volume. Almost unconsciously, her hand rushed up to her face to hide the reddening of her cheeks as her mind processed Naruto's words.

"I met a lot of people and no one has been as nice to me as you've been." Just like Naruto had been, Tiffania found herself completely caught off guard by his words and the blush on her cheeks showed that. What really cemented the situation was the striking and unblinking stare that the young male was sending her. She felt like she was getting an unrestricted look into the boy's soul and what she was seeing was … nice.

"Thank you." Tiffania stuttered out while dropping her gaze to the ground. By this point, she could practically feel the heat radiating off of her cheeks. She wanted nothing more than for him to not notice yet she could still feel his gaze focused on her.

"Why are you in the forest?" Tiffania nearly leaped out of her skin when Naruto's voice came out a lot closer than she expected. Her head shot up and nearly rebounded off of the boy's forehead due to his proximity. She jerked backward and nearly fell onto her back but was stopped when a pair of arms caught her.

"I didn't mean to scare you! I'm so sorry." Once again, the blond's voice was unnecessarily loud yet Tiffania couldn't find it within herself to care much. She was too focused on not losing her mind over the fact that she was cradled in the blond's arms. The fact that her vision was filled with his concerned-filled face, which was framed by his falling hair, wasn't helping in terms of keeping herself under control. From her position, she could make out all the minute details of his face and she certainly didn't dislike what she saw. The whole situation had quickly become something she couldn't handle.

"It's fine," Tiffania mumbled out while pushing herself upward. With a slow breath, she managed to regain control over her heated body. Thankfully for her, Naruto seemed unaware of her condition. Unfortunately for her, this meant he had absolutely no idea that he was the one causing it.

"I live in the forest because I like it. Nature is really beautiful and I can help the animals just like I helped you." Tiffania responded, hoping that her words would be able to push what had just happened away from the forefront of her mind. For the sake of her embarrassment, she needed it to work.

"You really are nice. Everyone would love you back at Konoha." Just like that, her hopes were dashed as the blood came surging back into her cheeks. The girl found herself unconsciously laughing as her body searched for some relief to the overflow of embarrassment and hidden elation. Her brain quickly latched onto the most interesting thing it could in an attempt to distract itself.

"Whats Konoha?"

"It's the village I'm from!" Just like that, the blond's decision to remain tight-lipped about his background went right out of the window as he began to describe the village hidden in the leaves. Tiffania hung onto every single one of his words while he described everything from the Hokage monument to all of the training ground.

"And the whole entire village is surrounded by a massive forest. Nothing can get through it." Naruto finished his rant after a full five minutes. Tiffania couldn't help but clap at its conclusion, earning her a cheeky laugh from the boy. The sight of the boy's closed eyes, pronounced and whiskered cheeks, and his bright smile had the elf unconsciously smiling back at him.

"That really sounds amazing." Tiffania responded with the smile stretched across her cheeks. Naruto nodded enthusiastically at her words.

"It is. You should come there sometime! You would love it." Naruto's words managed to shock the girl once again. The smile left her face as a more thoughtful expression migrated to take its place.

"You really think so?" The blonde asked.

"Really! I could show you so much stuff and we can do everything! We could do…" As Naruto began to list off activity after activity, Tiffania found herself falling more and more in love with the idea. She had spent years living in the forest and while she had managed to help a lot due to her location, she had desperately needed some kind of change. Now the blond in front of her was offering it and it sounded so amazing.

The fact that he made sure to say 'we' a lot in his explanation certainly did help her make her decision.

"...I'll go." Her words came out soft but they still managed to stop the blond's talking in her track. As a large grin began to spread across his face, Tiffania knew that she had made the right decision.

"Really?" Naruto questioned. Tiffania gave a small nod of her head as a smile of her own began to grow.

"Yes. I would love to go with you."

"Awesome!" Naruto shouted before unexpectedly reaching down and grabbing the girl off the ground. Tiffania let loose a loud shriek as she was lifted high into the air by the blond. He didn't seem to be the least bit perturbed by her body pressing against his as he kept her lifted into the air for several seconds.

"You're going to love it. I can't wait until everyone meets you. Old man Ichiraku and Ayame are going to cook you the best ramen ever!" As the boy spoke, Tiffania found herself uncontrollably smiling back at him. In the back of the mind, she could tell that THIS was the real Naruto. The husk of a person she had found floating in the river had only been a shell of the boy. The excitable, loud-mouthed, hyperactive boy currently holding her up in the air was Naruto Uzumaki.

She was beginning to really like Naruto Uzumaki.

* * *

 **AN: This fic has been commissioned by RoCu** **. Like all fics I do through Pat- reon, it has the potential to evolve into a full fic if the demand is large enough. I hope you all enjoyed it. PM or review with any questions, comments, concerns, etc. Have a wonderful rest of the night.**

 **P.S Crazy game, right?**


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto had a problem. He had a very big problem.

" _I think I floated from down there_?" He asked himself while taking a glance down the stretch of river. Nothing but dozens of trees greeted his eyes. He squinted them together to achieve a better view but his results were lacking. The trees merely became more blurred versions of themselves.

He turned his head to the left only to receive the same view. He repeated the process of squinting his eyes again, getting similar results to his first attempt. Confusion swept through him while he began to scratch the back of his neck.

"Is everything okay?" The boy turned around to see Tiffania staring at him with worried eyes. A large grin immediately sprung up on his face while he shook his hands in front of his face.

"Yes! Everything is perfect!" The boy shouted before flashing the girl two thumbs up. His reply seemed to appease her as she sent him a smile of her own before continuing to look around. With the girl's attention off of him, the smile dropped from Naruto's face. In its place now stood panic.

" _Where the hell am I_?" The blond thought to himself while staring at the river. A few minutes ago he had been ecstatic to return home with his new friend. Now, he had no idea where home was.

" _I should've paid more attention in geography class_." He groaned to himself before sucking in a deep breath. Panicking now would get him nowhere. He needed to keep a clear mind. Straight thinking was his best ally at the moment.

" _Okay, let's try to figure out where we are_." The blond thought to himself before glancing around at his surroundings. His eyes were met with trees and trees … and more trees and even more trees. A few weeks ago, if he had been in this exact situation, this would send him into a panic. Now though, his mind was clear.

" _Trees mean I'm still somewhere in Fire Country. That's the only place with this many trees … I think_." The blond frowned at the afterthought. He shook away the frown with a rapid shake of his head before slapping at his cheek. There was no time to doubt now. He had to go with his gut.

" _I had to travel Northeast to get here. I think the river flows to the west so that means we have to go east_!" The blond shouted in his head before turning to Tiffania.

"We have to turn east!" The girl nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden sound of Naruto shouting. She turned around and saw that the blond was now pointing at her with a large grin spread across his face.

"East?" She parroted and received a rapid head nod in return. She could do nothing but nod along and trust her new friend. She was clueless in her knowledge of where they were heading.

"Do you have all your stuff?" The boy's question stopped her nodding and made her turn to look down at the ground behind her. There sat a bulging green bag full of her belongings. Her eyes scanned over the visible contents for a few moments before she nodded to herself. Everything seemed to be in order. If anything was missing, it could be replaced. Living in the forest had left with an impermanence attitude toward her stuff.

"Great. Let's go." She offered the boy a quick smile before reaching down to pick up the bag. She stopped herself when a tan hand came into view and grab the bag out of her reach. The sudden appearance of the hand shocked her and nearly made her yelp as she looked up to identify its owner. She was surprised to find Naruto was now standing on front of her, holding her bag over his shoulder.

"I thought…" The girl turned her attention behind her and saw that Naruto was still standing in his original spot. Her attention switched forward to check if the Naruto holding her bag was still there. Her eyes widened when she saw that the blond was indeed still in front of her. Her attention switched between the two blonds over the course of several moments while her eyes grew with each switch.

"Are you ok-"

"That is so cool. How did you do tha-" Tiffania came rushing toward to the Naruto closest to her while the words came rushing out of her mouth. Unfortunately for the both of them, the girl misjudged the distance separating them and smacked head first into the boy. Instead of rebounding off the boy, she was surprised to find that her vision instead became consumed with smoke while she faced little resistance. She managed to slow herself over the next second before turning to look back at the Narutos. The blond duo was now nowhere in sight. Only a single Naruto stood staring at her with a small smile on his face while her bag of belongings sat back on the ground. The shock on her face grew in tandem with the blond's smile as she stared.

"There were two of you. What happened?" The answer to the girl's question appeared with a puff of smoke next to Naruto. When the smoke cleared, an exact copy of the boy could be seen standing by his side. The clone's existence was short-lived when the original Naruto slammed his fist into the clone's temple, expelling it in a cloud of smoke.

"There are my clones. They aren't the strongest…" Naruto trailed off when Tiffania appeared in his face in an instant. The girl's eyes were nearly glowing while she stared up at him in amazement.

"That's amazing. I've never seen somebody make clones." Naruto couldn't help the light blush and chuckle that left him at the girl's words. Heavy praise wasn't something he received on a regular basis, making him not quite use to receiving it.

"Yeah … it is, isn't?" He responded while scratching the back of his neck. He became aware of the small distance between his face and Tiffania. Her eyes were still filled with wonder and it didn't seem like she had any plans on moving. A nervous tension began to build up within his stomach while his mind attempted to conjure up a way to diffuse the situation.

"Well, let's get on the road!" Naruto shouted a little too loud while creating another clone to replace the one Tiffania had destroyed. The creation of the new clone managed to break away the girl's focus on him, a fact that filled him with much relief. The clone reached down and picked up the bag before turning to face the duo.

"Ready?" Tiffania responded with a strong nod of her head. She didn't want to admit it but the amount of excitement in her was greater than anything she had ever experienced. Even if the duo spent the next months wandering out lost in a forest, she couldn't wait for it to happen.

"Alright! Let's go then."

* * *

They were lost. She knew that they were lost but that didn't ruin her mood. Not much could get her down with Naruto around.

"Should be a little more this way." She turned her head toward the blond when she heard him mumbling. She had to stop herself from giggling at the sheer confidence radiating off of him. After an hour of walking aimlessly, sometimes even managing to back track to their previous locations, the girl had been able to deduce that the blond wasn't so sure of where they were headed. He had managed to keep the atmosphere light though with his bright attitude and jokes. If there was one thing the boy was good at, it was making her smile.

He wasn't so good at geography, though.

"Hey Naruto." A rush of panic shot through the boy at the sound of his name. Had he been discovered? Had the girl finally realized that he had no clue where they were headed? Was she going to be angry with him?

"What's being a ninja like?" The boy blinked before relief flooded through him. He hadn't been caught … yet.

"Being a ninja is the best thing ever!" Naruto shouted in response. "Everything is great … except for D-rank missions. All the other times, you're learning cool stuff like making clones or you get really cool missions. One time, I got to help a princess save her country."

"Really?" Tiffania responded while that same look of admiration overcame her eyes again.

"Yeah, really. It was pretty hard." Naruto began to go over the basics of his time in the Land of Snow with some slight embellishments. Instead of escaping prison with the help of his time, he managed to do so with the use of some shadow clones and great ingenuity on his part. Plus, his final fight with Doto didn't end with him in the hospital but with him standing victoriously over the man's unconscious body.

Tiffania ate it all up. Even with the details he didn't change, the girl loved every bit of what he said. Every few moments, she would ask some question that would end up prolonging their conversations. By the time he finished telling the full story, the two had been talking for a full hour.

"That sounded amazing but really dangerous. Are all missions that dangerous?" She asked with worry bleeding into her voice. She didn't want to lose her new friend to the dangers of these ninja missions.

"Sometimes but you don't have to worry about me. I can't handle myself." The blond flashed her a bright smile along with a thumbs up. The gesture seemed to appease her worry a little as she gave him a small nod before returning her attention to her surroundings. She blinked in shock when she realized where she was. Naruto was in a similar state as he looked upon the new landscape.

"Is that a beach?" Tiffania questioned. Naruto nodded his head because there was indeed a beach standing in front of them. A quick look behind him showed the treeline of the forest they had walked out of.

"Do we have to go over the water to get to your village?" The feeling of someone's eyes on him had never been so intense in his life. Naruto could feel himself begin to sweat despite the innocent and curious gaze of the girl in front of him. A large part of him knew, despite his supposed lack of geographical skill, that Konoha was nowhere near a beach. Yet a part of him, an even larger part, demanded he continued his journey over the water.

"I think so." His hasty reply was met with a nod and a smile from Tiffania. The smile didn't stay for very long when the girl turned to face the water once again. The curves of her lips twisted downward while her eyes ran over the choppy waves of the beach.

"How are we going to get over the wat-" Her words turned into an incomprehensible shriek when she was lifted high off of her feet. She looked down and saw that she was now In Naruto's arms. A quick look in front of her showed her that they were approaching the water at a swift pace.

"I don't have a change in clothes." The girl shouted as they came closer and closer to the water. When the boy didn't slow down, she closed her eyes tight in resignation. She had to accept that she would be making the rest of the journey soaking wet.

Surprisingly, the water never came. After several seconds of having her eyes closed without getting wet, the girl opened her eyes. She gasped when she looked down and saw that she was overtop of the water. She watched Naruto's feet slam on its surface as if it was solid ground. With each step he took, she thought they were doomed to fall in yet it never happened.

"Waterwalking. Another awesome part of being a ninja." Naruto shouted over the rushing wind of their movements. Tiffania glanced down at his face and saw that the boy had one of the biggest grins on his face yet. Despite the fact he had given her a heart attack by picking her up, she found herself returning the grin with one of her own. The grin morphed into laughter as the sprinkle of water tickled at her feet and the wind left her hair blowing in the wind.

Naruto really did know how to make her smile.

* * *

 ** _AN: Yes, I'm continuing this fic! It lives! For ground rules, this will be a romance heavy fanfiction. It will be almost 100% focused on the development of Naruto/_** Tiffania ** _relationship. Second, it will take place in the Naruto universe. I know some will be disappointed by that but I wanted to do the fic justice. Last, chapters will straddle that 2k-3k area. I'm working on six fics at the time and I don't want to get swamped in writing too much._**

 ** _Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Review with any questions, concerns, comments, etc._**


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